What is going on at United???

[Tomct]

They can make some simple changes to help. Improve BoB offerings, let pax know what features a plane will have, adjust change fees and ticket prices to better compete. Expedite 50 seater phase out and start looking for something to bridge the gap between 76 seats and 125 seats. Compete smartly IE: Don't fly 13 times a day between EWR-SFO; offer competing flight times with AC and service VA can't match. Get rid of Smisek, he is the face of too many bad mistakes.

Broke.......UA can't match VA Period! Our product is SUPERIOR and our FA's kick arse. You cannot get those geriatric inflight at UA to do more than one service on a 6 hr transcon. UA's plan to dump flights on the SFO-EWR-SFO has cost them hundreds of millions and believe me, we (VA) are making a KILLING on those EWR flights. Our yield is way up and the passengers can't get enough.

I wish you guys well, I have a lot of friends over there (former Virgin/ UA Furloughee's) and I certainly don't want to see you guys go back into BK. GET RID OF SMISEK! Good Luck!

 

[taxicabdriver]

DAL/UAL at similar points after their merger dates.

2009Q1/2011Q1, -693/-136
2009Q2/2011Q2, -199/+577
2009Q3/2011Q3, +51/+773
2009Q4/2011Q4, -255/+109
2010Q1/2012Q1, -192/-286
2010Q2/2012Q2, +549/+545
2010Q3/2012Q3, +929/+520
2010Q4/2012Q4, +158/-190
2011Q1/2013Q1, -318/-325
2011Q2/2013Q2, +366/+520
2011Q3/2013Q3, +765/+590
2011Q4/2013Q4, +379/+298
2012Q1/2014Q1, -39/-489

TOTALS, +$1501M/+$1916M

UAL is up 27% on DAL 3 1/2 years into their respective mergers.

Those numbers do no good as it does not take into account the economy at the appropriate times. Delta did far better as the economy was not nearly as strong in 09 as it is now. Btw... There are several cal mgmt guys that went to dal after the merger... Just sayin... So if the idiots at ual can't make money in the current times when corporate travel departments are spending more money than they have in years, it doesn't bode well for the employees at all. Ual.... A bankrupt airline once again, some things never change

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Gross incompetence?
OTH, heard UA ALPA is issuing a "No Confidence" statement on Smallsack.......

 

[Quack]

Those numbers do no good as it does not take into account the economy at the appropriate times. Delta did far better as the economy was not nearly as strong in 09 as it is now. Btw... There are several cal mgmt guys that went to dal after the merger... Just sayin... So if the idiots at ual can't make money in the current times when corporate travel departments are spending more money than they have in years, it doesn't bode well for the employees at all. Ual.... A bankrupt airline once again, some things never change

+1... Times are different now than in 2009-12. If they aren't making money now something isn't right. American made money, so comparing mergers to mergers is more about the economy at the time and not about who made what five years ago. Something's fishy about what's going on at UAL and for many friend's sake over there, I hope they can turn it around.

 

[Shrek]

As long as Smisek's name is on the door UAL is screwed.

 

[bluefin]

It does not matter who controls what, too many. RJ'S flying 3+ hr flights against DAL, AMR 757, 320, or what ever! Pay 500 to fly a 50 seater or 757 easy choice! Just UAL outsourcing way too much and trying to shrink to profitability, they just shrunk so much they can't cover operating cost!

 

[bluefin]

If that's what they told you, they lied to you again. I can't believe that some believed it.

Here is how it works. UAL pays the UAX carrier only if the flight is completed. The UAX carrier will operate that flight 18 hours late if that's the only way to get it completed. The UAX carrier wants to complete the flight! Otherwise they get no revenue. It's UAL who chooses which flights to cancel. It's UAL's who chooses how many UAX flights get cancelled. The only time a UAX carrier will cancel is if there are no crews or a mechanical that would take more than a day to complete.

Personally, I wished mainline pilots would scope back all their branded flying.

No one told us a thing!!! an executive manager made that quote! I am not blind to what is going on, doesn't take an MBA to figure it out! SCOPE, do you think we could have gotten a stronger clause with ALPA representing both pilot groups? Once again doesn't take much to figure that one out!!!

 

[densoo]

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/26/united-airlines-needs-to-clean-house.aspx

United Airlines Needs to Clean House


By Adam Levine-Weinberg
April 26, 2014


At United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL ) , it's clear that the buck stops nowhere. Last week, the struggling U.S. legacy carrier reported a huge adjusted loss of $489 million for Q1. Meanwhile, its top competitors -- including Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ) and American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL ) -- each earned hundreds of millions of dollars.


United executives rolled out a new wave of excuses to explain away both the poor Q1 performance and weak guidance for Q2. To some extent, I'm sure they are right that overlapping systems from United and Continental, high growth by other carriers in Asia, and the pilot shortage at regional airlines are causing big headaches.


United Airlines has come up with lots of excuses for its terrible performance.


However, at some point, the management team has to be held accountable for performance. United Continental is already two years past the biggest integration milestones, yet it continues to lose ground vis-a-vis every other major airline. It's time for the Board of Directors to step up and replace all of United's top executives and see if a new management team can do better.


Falling behind -- way behind
In early 2012, just over a year after the United-Continental merger closed, the integration process seemed to be in fairly good shape. United reported a solid $1.3 billion pre-tax profit for 2011, driven primarily by a 9.2% unit revenue increase: the best among the legacy carriers.


Since then, United's relative performance within the airline industry has declined rapidly. Last year, United's pre-tax adjusted profit totaled $1.1 billion: down about $200 million from 2011. In the same span of time, Delta Air Lines improved its pre-tax adjusted profit from $1.2 billion to a stunning $2.7 billion. Analysts now expect Delta to earn nearly $4 billion this year before taxes.


Delta Air Lines is on pace to post pre-tax earnings of nearly $4 billion this year.


American Airlines has also reported steady margin growth recently, and it improved its Q1 pre-tax margin by 3.6 percentage points. The company appears to be well-positioned for strong margin growth through the rest of 2014, too. American is projecting a 4%-6% increase in unit revenue for Q2.


Meanwhile, United is still floundering. The company's Q2 guidance calls for a meager 1%-3% unit revenue increase, with a large chunk of that gain attributable to the calendar shift of Easter from Q1 to Q2 this year. That would produce very modest profit improvement for United this quarter.


It's not getting better


As I have written previously, most airline analysts have been far too kind to United Continental in the past year or so. With the airline industry showing rapid profit growth, many analysts have assumed that United is bound to follow the rising tide. However, based on the combative tone of United's recent conference call, it appears that even formerly strident bulls are having second thoughts about United.


Most of the initiatives that United executives have raised as "fixes" for its unit revenue problems are very minor in nature. For example, United is optimizing its revenue management system, working to boost ancillary revenue, changing flight schedules in Houston and Denver, more actively matching aircraft size to demand, and cutting some flights in Tokyo.


However, United faces significant structural problems that will get worse -- not better -- as time goes on. First, United's hub in Newark is one of the company's crown jewels, but the recent Delta-Virgin Atlantic joint venture has left United as a distant third in the New York-London market: the most important international business travel market.




American Airlines is expanding in Asia, putting pressure on United. (Photo: American Airlines.)
Second, competitors like American and Delta are working to close the gap with United for Asia service. Both airlines are starting two new U.S.-Asia flights in June. Combined with the long-term growth trajectory of several Chinese airlines, this will keep up the pressure on United's transpacific routes.


Third, United's highly profitable transcontinental routes from JFK Airport in New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco are about to get a whole lot more competitive. All things considered, Q2 could very well be the easiest quarter of the year for United -- yet it will still post subpar results.


Time for some pink slips


The airline industry is a cyclical business, and it's pretty clear that we are approaching the high point of the cycle. Industry conditions are about as favorable today as they ever have been, yet United is still barely profitable, with a pre-tax margin of less than 3% for the last 12 months. In a year or two, the industry "tide" will probably start flowing the other way, dramatically ratcheting up the pressure on United's earnings.


Airline integrations are tough, and the United management team may have been dealt a bad hand in terms of other headwinds like route-specific competitive capacity increases.


However, the fact remains that United's management team isn't getting the job done. By now, United should be gaining ground on the rest of the industry in terms of margin performance. Instead, it is falling even further behind.


With several airlines having merged in the last few years, there are plenty of experienced airline executives who are out of the industry right now. It's time to give another group of leaders a chance to run United Airlines. It would be hard for them to do any worse than the current management team.

 

[capt1900]

Also, they can't compete with state sponsored airlines throughout the world. I don't think I would go to United at this point, but I'm sure they have plenty of apps on file.

 

[densoo]

Also, they can't compete with state sponsored airlines throughout the world. I don't think I would go to United at this point...

The way things are going here you've got to wonder if they'll even start hiring again this fall. If they start the shrinking to profitability mentality it could be just a decade-long slide into nothingness.